Disappearances
by Lucy Ruth
Summary: a story about the NCIS team and a case involving two teenage girls and a bunch of marines gone UA. eventual Tate (hopefully). this is my first fanfiction. rated T to be safe, may be more like K, multi-chapter. IT HAS CURRENTLY BEEN PUT TO ONE SIDE, I'VE RUN OUT OF IDEAS AND LOST IT A BIT :( reveiws may help, of course ;)
1. Chapter 1

**So yes, this is the first chapter i have ever written as a fanfic, so reviews are greatly appreciated, even if they're negative, which i hope they aren't.**

**Disclaimer: i do not own NCIS or any of its characters**

"Hi Kayleigh, how are you?" Kayleigh heard her friend Amy's voice, distorted down the phone line.

"Yeah I'm fine," Kayleigh lied "do you want to do something today Amy? I'm really bored; this English essay is just too dull for words"

"We always were like twins!" exclaimed Amy, excited "Yes, I would love to meet up! I don't care what we do, anything to get away from the black hole of English literature!" It didn't take a lot to please Amy; she was childish in that respect, as was Kayleigh.

"Agreed! Meet you outside yours in 10 minutes?"

"Yep, see you then"

The line went dead. Kayleigh sighed as she picked out something to wear; it had only just occurred to her that it was 12 o'clock and she was still wearing her tatty old trackies that she'd slept in the night before.

...

Tony walked into the bullpen and ditched his bag by his desk. Sitting down, he switched on his computer and began to check his mail. He looked up to see his boss above him.

"Tony, you're late"

"Yeah, sorry boss, I...er...got...well...you see...the...the..."

"Will you just spit it out DiNozzo?" Gibbs growled

"I overslept" mumbled Tony

"By 4 hours?!" asked Gibbs, astounded.

"Yeah, well, I may have had slightly too much to drink last night..." Tony tailed off.

"Well why didn't you just say so? Anyway, we have a sexual harassment lecture, so get your butt upstairs."

"I'd rather not Boss. I have notes to write up and..."

"DiNozzo, what was it in my tone of voice that made that seem like a request? GO!"

"Gibbs, no! Please? Oh come on, you know how boring these things are!"

"DiNozzo?!" Gibbs was incredulous.

"I'm going, I'm going!"

"Good. I will see you later then"

"And where are you going to be then?"

"At my desk" said Gibbs, simply

"Why?"

"Because I, unlike some of the primitive animals I work with, like to do my work at my desk"

"Well why can't I do work at my desk?"

"Because you have a lecture to go to" said Gibbs, like he'd just been asked the most stupid question.

...

"Kayleigh, we ALWAYS go to the cinema. I swear we've seen every film there is to see at the moment. Why don't we just go into the woods with Dodger?"

"Ok why not. Just to clear it up, there is a new film out, but it's a horror. I don't really want to see it, truth be told."

"See, you are learning; there is more to life than the cinema"

As they walked through the woods, carefree, neither of the two girls said a word. It wasn't awkward, they were such close friends that they could stay like this for hours without feeling remotely awkward, as each girl had lots on her mind. Amy thought about how the times had changed; when they were younger, they used to sit there playing with Barbie dolls, and now they were in their last year at school!

Kayleigh had something more worrying on her mind. Yes, her dad was a marine, but that didn't explain why he hadn't come home the previous evening. It didn't bother her to be alone, but not knowing where her dad was worried her slightly. It just left her feeling on edge, though it wasn't the first time this had happened, but in the past, she always got a text or a call to warn her that he wasn't coming home. This had a bitter feeling to it.

...

Kate was woken up from her daze by someone tapping her on the shoulder.

"Kate. Kate!" whispered Gibbs.

"What?" Kate questioned.

"Get out, and gear up, we have some marines who've gone UA"

Kate scrambled to her feet to follow Gibbs and then elbowed Tony in the ribs, on second thoughts. He woke with a start.

"Kate, what the hell was that for?" Tony growled, angrily.

"Do you want to get out of this or not, DiNozzo?"

"How do we escape?" asked tony, interested now.

"We don't escape, we have a case of marines gone UA to check out" explained Kate, bored.

"Oh. Well anything is better than this, it's gotta be said."

...

Amy and Kayleigh reached a small clearing in the middle of the woods behind their houses (they lived in the same road), and they let Dodger off his lead. As he began to run around madly, like the crazy puppy he was, the sat down on the grass and chatted.

"It reminds me of the old times" Kayleigh speculated

"Yeah, we used to play here all the time when we wanted an outlet from everyday life. Which, admittedly, was most of the time..."

"And we used to climb that tree in the corner and..." Kayleigh trailed off and looked at Amy mischievously.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Amy grinned.

"Depends, are you thinking what I think you're thinking?" Kayleigh retorted with a wicked smirk.

The two girls jumped up and charged across the clearing, with Dodger barking along behind them, hot on their heels. Giggling and generally acting childish, the girls shoved each other out the way and raced to climb to the best spot in the tree. Kayleigh got there first, only to be pushed out the way by Amy. Taken totally by surprise, Kayleigh fell out the tree, about 12 feet up and plunged towards the ground. Amy watched on in absolute horror. As she looked down, Kayleigh looked up at her, a pained expression on her face.

"Are you ok Kayleigh?" Amy yelled, anxiously.

"Yeah I...owww...maybe not!"

"Wait there. Don't move, I'm climbing down"

"I think we may be a bit old and big to be playing in these trees now" Kayleigh remarked.

"That is probably true. But who wants to grow up?!" retorted Amy, now on the ground walking towards Kayleigh. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, it's probably only..."

"what?" asked Amy, as Kayleigh looked past her shoulders to something behind her.

"I think...i think...oh crap, look at that" exclaimed Kayleigh, pointing at a lump behind Amy. Amy looked closer, and what she saw made her scream and scramble backwards. Her scream alerted her trusty dog, who began barking furiously at the sound.

**i hope this wasnt too bad, i would like to promise that all will improve as i get more confident with the whole writing thing. please reveiw, because i really want to know what people think of it. thank you**


	2. Chapter 2

**ok, so thank you to those of you that read the first chapter, especially to the person who reveiwed it, you are my new best friend (metaphorically speaking). hopefully i will try to keep updates this regular, but i'm not making any promises.**

Kayleigh and Amy sat in the clearing waiting for the police to arrive. Both were in utter shock, and upon discovering the dead bodies, they had left the job of guarding them to Dodger, who relished in his responsibility: he thought it was a great game to stand there and bask whenever a sound as little as the wind blowing sounded.

As they sat there, hugging each other, they began to formulate theories in their minds, but neither girl was brave enough to speak. They had both fled to the other side of the clearing when they saw the bodies lying there, and neither had had a close enough look at them to determine how many bodies were there, or even if there was any similarities in them. Despite their childhood dreams to be detectives, they sat there and waited for the police to turn up and do their job.

...

"So, what do we know so far" Gibbs asked his team.

"Well, a unit of marines have all gone missing at once, a week before they're due to be deployed. It's too coincidental to be, well, a coincidence." Replied Kate.

"Coincidences don't exist." Gibbs murmured. "Where were they going to be deployed?"

"Don't know boss, its "classified"" said Tony, dozily

"Ok, where were they based?" Gibbs continued to quiz his team.

"Don't know, boss it's..."

"Classified, I presume" Gibbs interrupted Tony's speech

"Err, yeah." Tony and Kate looked at Gibbs, unsure of what to do now.

"Well, why are you two still here? Go to the marine base and find out!"

Kate and Tony grabbed their guns and ID and headed towards the elevator.

"I don't know whether I'd rather be in the lecture with Gibbs in a mood like this" Kate remarked.

...

There seemed to be an awful lot of waiting in store for Kayleigh and Amy, as once again, they waited in the emergency department to get Kayleigh's arm x-rayed.

As Kayleigh sat there looking depressed, Amy tried desperately to lighten the mood by talking about school, childhood, boys, generally anything that came to mind. Kayleigh just sat there in silence, taking it all in, not responding to anything Amy said. She was woken from her trance by a nurse coming to lead her to the x-ray room.

As Amy stood outside, a police officer came to speak with her.

"Who were those people?" Amy asked the young, uniformed man.

"Three marines, don't know any more than that, sorry" he replied, "but the navy cops are currently being informed, and they will want to speak to you and kay...kayl.." he stuttered.

"Kayleigh"

"Yeah, Kayleigh, when they arrive, as you are the sole eye witnesses."

"We didn't actually see what happened" Amy pointed out.

"True, but the investigators will still want to talk to you, to get a detailed description for their investigation"

Amy was about to point out they couldn't give any details, but she let it drop; she wasn't going to get anywhere by arguing with the police officer.

"Fine"

...

In the bullpen, Gibbs' desk phone began to ring.

As the only agent there, McGee decided he'd better answer it

"Special agent Gibbs' phone" he called as he picked up

"Ah, McGee, it's director Sheppard here, where's Gibbs?"

"I'm not actually sure, I think he went with Kate and Tony to–"

"Ahem, McGee?" Gibbs coughed from behind him

"Oh, sorry boss, it's just, your phone rang and, there was no one, and I thought, I'm sorry..."

"McGee, the phone please?" Gibbs interrupted

"Oh yeah." Said McGee sheepishly, and handed the phone across to Gibbs before walking back over to his own desk.

"Never apologise McGee – it's a sign of weakness" called Gibbs from across the room before continuing to speak to the director.

"Yes...yes, I sent Kate and Tony to...ok...ok, I'm on my way"

"Gear up McGee, we may have found some of our missing marines" said Gibbs before walking out. McGee fumbled for his gear before rushing after Gibbs, getting there just before the elevator door shut.

"Phone Kate; tell her to head to Bracknell Lane." Ordered Gibbs

"On it, boss. What's at Bracknell Lane?"

"A wood and three dead marines McGee! Phone them."

...

"So what can you tell us about this unit?" Kate asked the marine.

"Not a lot, sorry miss, but they were working on a classified mission." He replied

"Did this 'classified' mission include anything that might make someone want to abduct them?" Tony asked.

"Well, not really, I mean, I'm not really sure..." He trailed off.

"Well, did any of them have access to sensitive data? Could there be a risk to national security?" Kate questioned.

"Well, yes they had access to sensitive data, they all did, it was part of their assignment, but, no, I don't think there could be a risk to national security, their clearance wasn't quite high enough for that to be a problem."

"What sort of sensitive data did they have access to?" Tony asked

"Can't tell you it's –"

"Classified" Tony sighed. "Right got it"

"Who here does have high enough clearance to access data that could present a national security risk if it got into the wrong hands?" Kate asked, suddenly.

"Well there's quite a few really, um, Commander-" He was interrupted by a cell phone ringing.

"Oh, sorry, that's mine" Kate fumbled on her belt for her phone

"Yeah, Agent Todd speaking" she heard McGee's voice at the other end of the line. "Oh, hey McGee...yes, we're speaking to him now...no, it's "classified"...oh, well, we're on our way...ok, see you in a minute." Kate hung up.

"That was McGee" Kate told Tony.

"Oh, I'd never have guessed" Tony replied sarcastically "what did he want?"

"Gibbs got a call; they've found some dead marines in a wood on the outskirts of D.C"

"Right, let's go then, it's not like we're doing any good here..."

"That's what I told him." Kate replied, then turned to the marine they'd been speaking to. "Ok, thank you for your time, though my boss will probably want to speak to you at some point."

"No problem, I just hope you find them, and find out what's going on here" he replied politely.

"Fat chance if you won't even tell us what they're supposed to be doing" Tony said, under his breath, so only Kate could hear. Kate stifled a laugh and the two headed off to their car.

**yeah, so i'm having a bit of trouble incorperating Tate into this so far, so it's going to be very graduall. of couse, if you have any ideas, you can always leave it in a reveiw (hint hint) :) thanks**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you very much to those of you that reviewed. You don't actually realise how comforting it is to get them, until it's you writing. Again, I am going to try to bring in a little more Tate, but it will be gradual unless I get a brainwave sometime soon... enjoy x**

Gibbs arrived at the crime scene to find his medical examiner already there, along with his assistant Mr Palmer.

"So, as I was saying, the ancient Egyptians were very fascinating, in many ways –"

"Duck, I don't think the ancient Egyptians killed our buddies here, so, what can you tell me?" Gibbs interrupted Ducky from a few meters away.

"Well, not a lot to be frank, I've only just met the deceased, but they were shot, and the lack of blood splatters would indicate they were killed somewhere else and dumped here."

"So, time of death?" Gibbs asked, crouching over the bodies, next to Ducky.

"Good god Gibbs, I'm not that good!"

"Sure you are, Duck. What does your gut tell you?"

"Sometime in the last 2 – 3 days, judging by the, well, decomposition or lack thereof. Definitely in the last few days."

"Boss, the police have sealed off the entire street, and have hounds searching the rest of the wood" McGee called, interrupting.

"Good job McGee." Gibbs called back, then added "where are DiNozzo and Kate?"

"I'm not sure boss, they were interviewing the commanding officer of the missing marines when I called, they probably got held up" McGee suggested, warily.

"Well, in their absence, start taking photos" Gibbs instructed.

"Sure, on it boss" McGee ran back to the truck to grab his camera as Kate and Tony pulled up behind it.

"Kate, you could have gone a little bit faster!" exclaimed DiNozzo, from the passenger seat.

"No, I couldn't, I was doing the speed limit" Kate retorted "not that that's a word you'd understand..."she added, under her breath

"Kate, you are in a vehicle registered to a federal agency. You can break the speed limit!" Tony replied, frustrated.

"Actually, that isn't true, but if it were an emergency, then yes, I would" Kate replied as she got out the driver's seat.

"This is an emergency, it's called a crime scene" Tony pleaded, exasperated, as he slammed his door shut.

"No it wasn't, Gibbs was already here" Kate replied, exasperated too. "Just because you drive like a lunatic doesn't mean I have to"

"If you two are done with your mother's meeting, you can come and join us!" Gibbs shouted from the edge of the woods, interrupting their argument.

"This isn't over" Tony growled, as he jogged to meet his boss.

Kate sighed and wished Tony would grow up as she followed.

"Well thank you very much for joining us" Gibbs drawled sarcastically

"Yeah, sorry boss but Kate doesn't –"

"Tony feels the need to-"

"If we can get back to the topic..." Gibbs raised his voice to overrule his arguing colleagues.

"Yeah sorry boss" Tony replied sheepishly.

"Yeah, won't happen again" Kate added.

"Especially if Kate-" Tony was interrupted by Gibbs slapping him round the back of the head. "Gee, thanks boss" Tony muttered as he went off to 'Bag and tag' with Kate.

Satisfied his team were finally getting on with their jobs, Gibbs went to speak with the police officer on scene.

"So, you found the bodies?" Gibbs questioned.

"Technically, no, I was the first on scene, but we had a call from some teenage girls"

"Where are they now?" Gibbs wondered out loud

"One of them had fallen out of a tree; they're at the local hospital." The officer replied

"Ok, thank you officer"

"My pleasure, sir. Are you ok to take this crime scene; it's just, we've had quite a few incidences already this weekend..."

"Yep, we'll be fine, just y'know, let us know if you get any leads."

"Of course." The officer turned and walked off.

"Kate, McGee!" Gibbs yelled

"Yes?" came back the responses, in unison.

"Local hospital, two teenage girls, go!" Gibbs commanded.

"Ok" came the reply, followed by two, jacket clad, agents jogging across the clearing and into the woods on the other side.

"Tony?" Gibbs called

"Yeah boss?" Tony replied

"When you've done bagging and tagging, finish taking photos of the scene, then ride in the truck back to HQ"

"Sure boss, where are you going?"

"To get more information out of this commanding officer at the marine base." Gibbs said simply, before walking off.

...

"So, you two found the dead marines, yes?" McGee asked the two teenage girls

"Yes, we were...walking the dog, and we saw them" Amy replied, glancing at Kayleigh, having decided to omit the part about climbing a tree.

"How does walking the dog involve climbing a tree?" Kate asked, looking at Kayleigh's arm, which was now in a cast. Kayleigh looked at it awkwardly, before saying:

"Well, it doesn't really, but we were...well, being childish I guess, and climbed a tree, which I fell out and landed about 5 meters away from the...bodies"

"Ok, did you touch them at all?" McGee asked.

"No! As soon as we realised what was there, we ran away quickly." Amy replied.

"Ok, we are still going to need your fingerprints and Kayleigh's DNA to differentiate it from any found at the scene. McGee, go see if they are allowed to leave yet, please"

"Sure, ok" McGee got up and walked over to the receptionist

"Who were the marines who were found?" Kayleigh asked tentatively.

"I don't know sorry, they didn't have any ID on them" Kate answered

"You work for NCIS?"

"Yes, why?" Kate replied, slowly

"Would you be able to find out who they are?"

"Yes, we'll run their DNA and fingerprints through the database." Kate replied, slightly confused as to why the girl was asking her.

"And you'd be able to tell us when you find out?" Kayleigh asked.

"Erm...I suppose so, why? Do you know something you're not telling us?"

"Well, you see...my...my dad's in the marines...and...He ...He didn't come home last night" Kayleigh admitted, embarrassed.

"You live with your dad only?"

"Yeah, my mum died a couple of years ago"

"Oh. Sorry. Ok, well, how old are you?"

"Nearly 18" Kayleigh replied "2 weeks" she added.

"Well, in that case, stupid as it may seem, you shouldn't really go home to an empty house"

"She can stay at mine" Amy said, speaking for the first time in a while "that is ok, isn't it?" she asked both the other women.

"Yes, that's fine, assuming Kayleigh's fine with it?" Kate replied, glancing at Kayleigh, who nodded.

"Oh, and I'm sure my boss will want to speak to you both, particularly Kayleigh. Do you know what your dad did in the marines specifically?" Kate said

"No, he, he didn't really talk about it much, or in very much detail. Whenever I asked, he always said it was classified, but involved a variety of things. I think he was part of some special taskforce..." Kayleigh trailed off.

"Ok, the doctor says Kayleigh's fine to go" said McGee, returning.

"Ok, so if you two would come with us..."

The four of them walked out of the hospital and to the car, to drive back to the navy yard and NCIS headquarters.

**What do you think? i'm not sure if i got all the styles of dialogue right, or the methods of investigating, but i did my best. (i'm not going to research anything unless i really have to). thank you for reading, i will try and update as often as possible, without making the chapters absolutely rubbish, but i will probably update more often at the weekends than anything else.**


	4. Chapter 4

**So, I really am quite proud of myself, in that last couple of days I have written 4 chapters! I hope they're not too bad, but given the views total, I am going to assume it's ok. I am attempting to bring in a bit more Tate here, hope you guys like it. Enjoy **

Back at NCIS, Tony had finished at the crime scene and was in Abby's lab, helping her sort through all the evidence bagged at the scene.

"So I hear there's some teenage girls involved with this case Tony" Abby remarked suggestively.

"Yeah" replied Tony, not entirely sure where this conversation was going.

"But Kate tells me you haven't started hitting on either of them yet?" Abby questioned Tony's actions.

"No Abby! They're like 18!"

"My point exactly, they're the same age as the girls you normally date" Abby said with a wicked grin on her face, before turning to her computer which was beeping at her.

"Ok, I have a hit on the DNA samples from the bodies Ducky sent me..." Abby announced.

"Oh, yeah? Who are they?"

"Gunnery Sergeant Trevor Adams; Lance Corporal Harry Davidson and Corporal Alex McKean"

"They're all from the missing unit" Tony gasped, checking his file. "I'll go and tell Gibbs, good work Abby!" Tony said before racing towards the elevator. "Oh and for the record, the youngest girl I have dated recently was 21" Tony yelled as the elevator doors began to close. Abby laughed to herself as she turned her attention back to the screen to continue her part of the investigation.

...

In the interrogation room, two teenage girls sat in silence, waiting nervously. Kate and McGee watched from the observation room.

"I wonder why Gibbs is making them wait." Kate remarked "it's not like they're suspects"

"I think he's busy getting the facts right before he speaks to them. He wants to make sure he's not lying or whatever" McGee replied.

As they spoke, Gibbs was walking round the corner. He was about to open the door to the interrogation room, when Tony ran full pelt round the corner in an attempt to catch him before he went in, and crashed straight into Gibbs, spilling the coffee he held in his hands all over the files he was carrying.

"Tony! What are you playing at?" Gibbs exclaimed.

"Oh gosh, sorry boss, it's just, Abby ID'd the victims. I thought you'd want to know" Tony gasped, out of breath from his high speed trek.

"Well, are you going to tell me who they are, or do I have to guess?" Gibbs said, sarcastically.

"Oh yeah! Um, their names were: Gunnery Sergeant Trevor Adams, Lance Corporal Harry Davidson and Corporal Alex McKean" Tony replied, in a hurry.

"Ok, thank you." Gibbs turned to go into the interrogation room, as Tony began to walk off. "Tony!" Gibbs called after him.

"Yeah boss?"

"I still want a coffee" Gibbs said, before opening the door and walking in.

...

"Ok, so both the bullets found were 9mm slugs, but the bullet wounds don't all match up across the three bodies, and some of them are through & through, so my betting would be on multiple shooters, probably two, but maybe three. What do you think McGee? Some sort of conspiracy against the government maybe?"

"Abby, don't let your imagination run too wild, they're only marines, not the president!"

"Yeah, but –" Abby tried to argue.

"At the minute, all we know is that a unit of marines went missing, and now three out of the six have turned up dead." McGee said bluntly.

"Sheesh, McGee, lighten up!" Abby said.

...

"So, Kayleigh, Amy, what can you tell me about what you saw earlier today."

"Nothing that we didn't tell the police and your agents earlier" Amy said grumpily.

"Amy, cooperate, they're only trying to do their jobs." Kayleigh said to her sullen friend. "Have you found my dad?" Kayleigh asked the senior field agent. "He isn't dead is he?" she worried out loud.

"What is your father's name sweetheart?" Gibbs said.

"Jeremy Armstrong" Kayleigh replied, shortly.

Gibbs checked his file. "No, he isn't one of the marines we found, but he is one of the marines missing; he was in the same unit as the dead marines downstairs."

Kayleigh looked down at her feet and tried not to let her emotions show as she worried about her father's safety.

"Don't worry, we'll find him, I promise." Something about the young girl pulled on his heartstrings; maybe it was the uncanny resemblance Kayleigh bared to his own daughter, Kelly, or the fact that her world was being torn apart in front of him, but whatever it was, he was seeing her at her weakest, and it made him feel sorrow for her. "I will find him." Gibbs said before pulling six photographs of marines out of his file.

"You recognise any of these?" he asked the girls

"Well yeah, that one's Kayleigh's dad" Amy pointed out as she looked at the photo closest to her.

"I think I've seen most of these people once or twice; dad used to go fishing with them at the weekends when I was younger, and they used to come back to ours after and stay for tea" she paused, thinking, trying to remember the names that went with the faces she knew all too well form her childhood.

"That one's Andrew Fisher, and that's Harry Davidson. They're not dead, are they, cause they were dad's closest friends in the marines?" Kayleigh asked, identifying two of the marines in the photos.

Gibbs looked awkwardly at her. "Well, we don't know where Sergeant Fisher is, but I'm afraid Lance Corporal Davidson is downstairs in autopsy." Gibbs said, unable to break the news gently to her.

That seemed to be the final straw for Kayleigh, as a couple of tears brimmed over her eyes and started to roll down her cheeks. "They were like family to me. I don't have any aunts or uncles, so we always used to have them over at Christmas and Thanksgiving" Kayleigh said, through her tears.

Gibbs couldn't stand the sight of the young adult crying, and walked round the table and pulled her into a hug. She cried softly into his chest, before straightening up and drying her eye. There was a glint of determination in her eye. She was going to find out who did this, and make them pay.

...

Kate sat at her desk, going through the phone and bank records of their six marines from the past month, when Tony walked in carrying a bag of take-out food from the local Chinese. He stopped in front of Kate's desk and put down a pot of chow mein and some chopsticks.

"Kate, take a break, it's 9 o'clock, and you've been working since 8 this morning. Eat something" Tony instructed.

"Tony, I've got to go through these records, and Gibbs will probably kill me if I haven't finished by the time he finishes interviewing those girls" Kate responded, and continued to look at the numerous sheets of paper in front of her. Suddenly the sheet she'd been reading was whipped out of her hands. Tony was standing behind her, and had taken the phone records away.

"Eat" he instructed, as he pulled up a chair and sat next to her, carrying on from where she'd left off with the records. The two of them sat there silently, eating whilst they searched painstakingly through each sheet of paper for something that might give them a clue as to why the marines were missing.

"Thank you Tony" Kate said, breaking the silence

"For what?" Tony asked

"This." Kate said, "For caring, for helping me" Kate muttered, trying to stifle a yawn.

"It's ok, that's what partners are for" Tony said, making it sound like nothing. "you should probably go home Kate, you look awful" Tony added.

"Why thank you, agent DiNozzo." Kate replied sarcastically "you don't exactly look like the Mona Lisa yourself"

"Kate, I'm serious, get some sleep" Tony said, worried about his partner, and his friend. "It's like 10.30! You've been up and working all day!"

"So have you!" Kate pointed out.

"Well, technically, no I haven't. I was late in this morning" Tony said, as Kate yawned. She looked so tired, yet beautiful, Tony couldn't help himself, and he pulled her into a hug. She nestled into his chest and slowly fell asleep there. Eventually, so did tony.

Gibbs walked into the bullpen to see his colleagues asleep together, and walked out smirking, as he turned out the lights.

**so i hope a havent rushed the Tate, but i desperately needed to bring some in. reveiws are always welcome, thank you those who have reviewed, you have no idea how happy it makes me :) i will try and update soon, but it probably wont happen quite as often duirng the week :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**ok, so i'm sorry for the incredibly long delay in uploading this, i sort of had a block and i had too much other stuff going on to have time to write anything, so it's quite short, but i decided i really needed to update. thanks to those who've stuck with it so far. its not by best chapter, but here you go xx**

Tony woke up to the early morning autumn sunlight on his face. Stiffly, he groaned, stretched his arms and looked at his chest where Kate was still fast asleep. He was slightly confused until he remembered the previous night, the reminants of which were strewn across Kate's desk in front of them; the half eaten Chinese and crumpled papers all over the place.

Tony smiled, he had to admit, it was quite a nice feeling having Kate leaning against him, she was so beautiful, and Tony couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it till now. He'd always seen Kate as more of a colleague than a friend, but recently it had begun to dawn on him that he loved Kate, and the idea of her not being there for him was upsetting. Kate had always just been there, and Tony had always taken that for granted, something he had been lucky with, as someone as beautiful as Kate wont just "be there" for much longer. Sometime, she will get a partner and settle down. Tony surprised himself by suddenly feeling protective over her. The idea of someone else being with Kate made him almost angry. Calming down, Tony put his arms around Kate, buried his nose in her hair and just stayed there for a few more minutes.

...

Kayleigh had been up since 4 o'clock, having been unable to sleep due to anxiety, so she decided to get up and go for a walk outside. It was cold and dark, and Kayleigh only had the jeans and thin sweater she'd worn the day before, which were covered in mud and grime, but she didn't care. She needed to escape the dark place her mind had spent the last few hours in, dreaming up awful scenarios that explained her father's disappearance. She needed to get out.

As she walked along the dimly lit, foggy road, Kayleigh paid little attention to where she was going. She knew this part of town like the back of her hand, as she had grown up here. There was little she didn't know about the area and its inhabitants, so she wasn't particularly worried about getting lost. As she walked, she had no idea where she was going; she felt as if she was in a daze, and the fog wasn't helping this, as it made everything seem more surreal. As the night wore on and became early morning, Kayleigh started to feel more aware, and also paranoid. Since her dad hadn't come home that night, wherever she went, she felt like someone was following her. She could have sworn there were footsteps behind her, yet, whenever she turned around, there was never anything there.

...

A phone ringing woke Kate and Tony from their sleep, as they both stirred at the high pitched, annoying sound.

"You sleep ok?" Tony asked Kate.

"Yeah" Kate groaned, stiff and tired. "Could have done with more sleep though" she added, "whose phone's ringing" she asked, finally aware of what woke her.

"Gibbs'" said Tony, glancing at their boss's desk, "think we should answer it?"

"err...I don't know, should we?" Kate replied, unsure of what to do. Gibbs could get quite tetchy about people answering his calls.

Their problems were solved when the boss himself walked in and picked up his desk phone.

"Hello?" Gibbs answered

"Hi, agent Gibbs? It's Amy" came the reply

"What can I do for you Amy?" Gibbs asked

"Kayleigh's gone" Amy replied shortly. "I woke up and she's gone, she's not in her bed or anywhere else in the house, and she's not answering her phone. I didn't know who else to call" she said sheepishly

"Ok, when and where did you last see her?" Gibbs asked urgently.

"Last night, asleep in her bed!" Amy's voice rose as she replied, hysterical.

"ok, try to stay calm, we will be there as soon as we can" Gibbs said, before dropping the phone and turning to his team. "Well, why are you still standing there? Go on, clean yourselves up and gear up!" Gibbs commanded before walking out the room.

**what do you think? i will hopefully update sometime soon, what with it being school holidays and all... cheers :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**so, ive decided again to go with the slightly more regular, shorter updates, particularly as im struggling with how to put my thoughts onto paper right now, so i hope its not too awful :)**

Kayleigh wondered down the street, completely unaware of the panic her disappearance had caused, when someone grabbed her and dragged her down an alleyway. Too shocked to scream, Kayleigh found herself being bundled up against a damp wall and felt a gun nozzle in her chest.

"Keep quiet and I won't hurt you" a rough male voice grumbled, from underneath a face mask. Kayleigh wished she had the capability to scream, but all she was able to do was gasp in shock, her body seemed unable to function.

"There is one thing I want you to understand about this: you do what I want, when I want and how I want, and I, in return, will not harm you in any way. Do I make myself clear?" the man said, his hand covering Kayleigh's mouth, so all she could do was nod frantically in reply. "Good, then we have a mutual understanding." The man growled simply before pulling Kayleigh away with him towards a van.

...

"McGee!" yelled Gibbs at the probie, "downstairs, help Abby track Kayleigh's mobile number to get a GPS location. Call me when you're done." Gibbs instructed as he jogged towards the elevator to join his team outside and driving off back to the road they'd been at the day before.

"Tony, I want you to speak to Amy, get every last detail, anything that she knows, to make a timeline of events since we let them go home last night, you clear?"

"Crystal, boss" Tony said sharply before getting out the car.

"Kate, search the house, anything that looks out of place – shoot and sketch, bag and tag, whatever!" Gibbs commanded before looking around the street as if Kayleigh was going to jump out of a bush and say "gotcha!".

"I hope Gibbs doesn't get too wound up over this one" Kate muttered to tony, having noticed the look on their boss's face. Tony looked back at her, knowingly, before saying "it'll be fine if she turns up in the next 10 minutes, unharmed, after having gone out to buy the newspaper..."

...

"Now, bearing in mind what I said earlier, tell me exactly what you know about your father's job" the mysterious man commanded to Kayleigh who was bound to a chair in what looked like a dimly lit warehouse.

"I don't" she said, sullenly.

"What was that? Are you sure you understood what I said earlier?" said the man, growing steadily more angry.

"I don't know anything. My dad is a US Marine, I swear to God, that's all I know!" Kayleigh replied desperately, giving up the bravado.

"I don't think you're being totally honest with me" the man said gruffly, before he began to untie the knots binding Kayleigh to the chair and dragged her across the room by her arm. Kayleigh screamed as his hands dug into her one good wrist and pulled her across the uneven floor and into another room.

...

"Well, there's no sign of forced entry or a struggle, no blood spatters etc, it really does look as though she walked out the house..." Kate reported back to her boss.

"Or she knew her kidnapper..." Gibbs remarked, distantly.

"Or that..." Kate trailed off, unsure of what to say or do.

"Boss, I spoke to Amy and her mother, got a timeline of events." Tony called, jogging over to the two of them.

"And?" Gibbs asked.

"Nothing unusual, they got home, had dinner, chatted a bit, watched TV and then went to bed. Next thing they know, Kayleigh's gone and they phoned us. End of." Tony replied. "No one heard any noises to indicate someone was in the house, the dog didn't bark and apparently he normally would if he spotted an intruder. It really does seem that she went for an early morning stroll."

"Speak to the neighbours, see if anyone saw or heard anything between 10 last night and 7 this morning." Gibbs instructed, "Then head back to HQ and we'll go from there." Gibbs added, and then walked over to where Amy and her mum stood.

...

"So Abbs, what can you tell us?" Kate asked.

"Well, not much to be honest, she hasn't used her phone since yesterday in the early morning and that was a phone call to her dad, who didn't pick up. Her phone is turned off now, so its proving quite hard to track, but give us some time and we'll get it."

"Abby, time is one thing we're short of right now" Tony said, "how long will it take?" he added, feeling slightly frustrated.

"Geez Tony, I don't know, could be minutes, could be hours! Depends on the GPS system in her phone." Abby replied, equally frustrated.

"Sorry, it's just, well, you know Gibbs, when things like this happen, he gets a tad unbearable" Kate said, apologetically.

"Yeah I know." Abby said glumly "I've had to work with him for goodness knows how long. It's happened before and it will happen again, I just hope you guys solve the whole thing soon."

"Would be quicker if the main witness hadn't just disappeared with the rest of them" tony added quietly before turning towards the elevator.

"Sheesh, what's got into him?" Abby said smirking.

"I don't know Abby, but believe me, it's getting on everyone's nerves." Kate replied before turning to follow her partner.

**yeah, as i said, bear with me, it will improve once i get over the mental blockage...**


End file.
